Fit For Hounds, Sammamish-area Band, Pumped Audience Saturday at EMP's Sound Off! Finals

Members of Fit For Hounds, the rock band from the Sammamish area, returned to EMP in Seattle on Saturday night to bring their brand of music to an estimated 700 to 750 people.

They strummed. They swayed. And they shuffled, just a bit, as their rock sounds filled EMP's Sky Church and kept fans in the audience happy. For the band, performing twice at Sound Off! - first at a semifinal round on Feb. 19 and then at the finals - marked a dream realized.

By the end of the night, Tomten, a Seattle band, received first place with Northern Departure, a bluegrass inspired group from Renton, taking second. Fit For Hounds received the audience participation award.

The Oh Wells, a British Columbia group, was the fourth band in the final competition.

Sound Off! is the Pacific Northwest's largest underage music competition of its kind. This year's competition marked its 10th anniversary. The event also has served as a launching pad for many of the musical groups to perform on stage.

The Fit For Hounds members are: William Conrad Doerrfeld, who is the band leader and writes the vocals, Alicia Doerrfeld, his sister who plays guitars and helps with vocals, Scott Sherman, who plays guitar and bass and Zach Barokas, who is on the drums. 

Before the show, Sherman looked at Sound Off! from both sides of the coin.

"Win or lose, it's going to be a success. We've already got people talking to us. We've already got way more show invitations than ever," he said. "It's only uphill from here."

He added: "This is just a success getting into finals."

Gene Stout, a Seattle-area pop music critic and writer, was in the audience and observed how the underage music event has evolved since the 1990s.

"The level of professionalism has been coming up steadily since this began 10 years ago," he said. "It's really astounding."

Editor's note: Visit EMP's website for information about all of the bands. EMP's flickr account has photographs from Saturday's final event. EMP's YouTube channel will have videos from Saturday's performances. It already has videos from the semifinal rounds.

Fit For Hounds can be found online and on Myspace, Facebook,Twitter and YouTube. On his website, Stout has posted a quick review of the Sound Off! 2011 final competition.